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By Erich Schwartzel 

LOS ANGELES -- Earlier this summer, the producers of a coming "Jumanji" remake put out a call to talent agencies: They wanted a Chinese actor in their movie.

Male or female? It didn't matter. And what was the role, exactly? That wasn't clear, either.

"They want to have a Chinese component. They don't necessarily know what it is," said one talent agent.

It was yet another example of a new Hollywood ritual -- finding Chinese actors to cast in U.S. films to try to appeal to audiences in China, which is on track to become the world's largest box office in the next couple of years.

The tactic has yielded mixed results.

Chinese audiences cheer homegrown actors who secure meaningful roles in Hollywood blockbusters, such as Shanghai-born actress and pop singer Angelababy did when she played a fighter pilot in "Independence Day: Resurgence" this summer. But quick cameos that come across as a ploy to win Chinese fans tend to fall flat.

When Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing starred in 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past," she had one line: "Time's up."

Beijing Daily, a state-run local newspaper, said in a 2014 article that her earlier cameo in the Chinese version of "Iron Man 3" was "quite embarrassing." Though her part in "X-Men" was more significant, it still "triggered controversy after it is released here."

"X-Men" studio Twentieth Century Fox declined to comment.

Chinese moviegoers even have a term to describe actresses who serve as little more than props in Western films: "flower vases."

"That's where people have struggled a bit -- not acting like the person is product placement, like the way you would find a beer can in a movie, " said Rob Moore, vice chairman at Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

China is the world's second-largest movie market, with $5 billion worth of tickets sold so far this year, according to EntGroup Inc., compared with $8.1 billion in the U.S. After years of strong growth, ticket sales in China have stalled this year, though it is still expected to overtake the U.S. in the next few years.

So far this year, nearly 57% of China's total box-office receipts were from Chinese films. But ticket sales for the first half of 2016 show a trend that has Hollywood worried: Imported movies accounted for 46.9% of ticket sales for those six months, compared with last year's 53.5%. More Chinese movies are driving Chinese consumers to the multiplex, ratcheting up the need for Hollywood to find new ways to get them into seats.

Tina Yu, a Beijing-based consultant, said she wouldn't watch a film just because it featured a Chinese actor. "Most of these Chinese stars, especially actresses, simply feature in a film as a 'flower vase' or just as a bystander," she said. "For me, I watch a film for its story."

Several forthcoming titles such as "God Particle" and the next Star Wars film, "Rogue One," feature actors who are relatively unknown to Western audiences but command massive fan bases in China.

For the actors, securing the right role in a Hollywood film "opens the door to fame in the Western world," said Darren Boghosian, an agent at United Talent Agency who represents Chinese stars including Angelababy and Li Bingbing, who had a small role in "Transformers: Age of Extinction" and took English classes to become more appealing to U.S. casting directors.

"If you're famous in America, you're famous all over the world. If you're famous in China, you're only famous in China," said Mr. Boghosian. UTA and other major Hollywood talent agencies have built China divisions to represent local talent.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., which produced "Now You See Me 2," began having conversations about finding a role for Jay Chou, a singer popular in China, in the movie before the script was developed. Qiu Jie, chief executive of Beijing-based Leomus Pictures International, released the movie in mainland China and suggested Mr. Chou to the studio.

"We emphasized that the added Chinese actor in this film should be meaningful and proper," said Mr. Qiu. "We understand that a Chinese character will not be a lead role in the film. But if you can at least do that, the local audiences will not criticize it."

The original "Now You See Me" grossed $23 million in China when it was released in 2013; the sequel collected $97 million, making it Lions Gate's highest-grossing movie in the market.

Executives say the roles must naturally fit into the plot or else audiences in every country become disillusioned. Angelababy fends off aliens as part of a global-fighter brigade in "Independence Day." Mr. Chou's character in "Now You See Me 2" runs a magic shop that the main characters visit in Macau.

"If you can work it into the story line organically, it makes the movie bigger and more global," said Lora Kennedy, executive vice president of casting at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which is releasing "Kong: Skull Island" with Chinese actress Jing Tian next year.

Chinese stars also can help Hollywood navigate China's restrictive regulations.

U.S. studios face restrictions in how they can market their movies in China that scale back the frequency of traditional methods such as billboards and television commercials. One tactic taking hold: Hiring Chinese pop stars with large social-media followings to record theme songs to the movies that play on local radio and serve as de facto advertisements.

"It gives you another way in," said Mr. Moore at Paramount, which released "Transformers."

The theme song for "Now You See Me 2," sung by the film's Mr. Chou, had a chorus that called out the film: "Now you see me 'cause I let it be / Wanna find the key you gotta follow my beat."

--Lilian Lin in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2016 13:14 ET (17:14 GMT)

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